Information storage systems may include a variety of different hardware and software components. For instance, a storage system may include one or more storage controllers, where each of the storage controllers provides the low-level control for a plurality of physical storage drives. The storage system may also include network connections and other items that are ancillary to the storage functionality of the system. Storage systems continue to become more and more complex, with storage controllers hosting an increasing number of logical storage volumes and storage controllers being clustered rather than simply standing alone. There is currently a need for a management application that monitors assets of storage systems in an efficient and intuitive manner.
A human user acting as an administrator for a storage system may have to investigate errors or other undesirable performance issues from time to time. Conventional monitoring and management applications exist that allow the administrator to view the performance of a particular system asset, usually by examining performance data logs. However, current monitoring and management applications rely on the skills and knowledge of the administrator to understand whether performance of one system asset affects the performance of another system asset. For instance, undesirable performance of a network interface card at a storage controller may affect the latency of a storage volume, and the administrator would be expected to know the interrelationships of the different storage assets and to trouble shoot perceived problems at one storage asset by looking to related storage assets. Nevertheless, current monitoring and management applications do not provide much or any assistance in identifying important relationships among performance of storage assets.